"Diddy" Combs makes personal history at Sundance

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sean "Diddy" Combs -- rapper, music
producer, fashion designer, business mogul, Broadway star --
has had many career-defining moments. This week at the Sundance
Film Festival, he had yet another.

"This a historical moment for me, my first starring role in
a movie," Combs, 38, told Reuters. "Some of the audience is
going to want to see did I do good or did I fall flat on my
face?"

Combs was discussing his part in a new film adaptation of
the 1959 play "A Raisin in the Sun," which has been remade
several times for stage and screen -- most recently in a 2004
Broadway production starring Combs in the role of a young,
struggling black American, Walter Lee Younger.

Now Combs is back in a made-for-television "Raisin" set to
air on ABC on February 25 to an audience that may be unfamiliar
with the story about U.S. race relations, inner city struggle,
hopes, dreams and the strength of family bonds.

"Sometimes people come to a place and don't expect to get
the message," Combs said. "This generation, they come for
entertainment ... then they realize, 'oh man, this movie is
really touching. It's making me really appreciate my family."'

Combs has acted before. He had a small but key role in the
2001 movie "Monster's Ball" and his Broadway run in "Raisin"
earned him respectable reviews and won over audiences.

Yet Combs admitted to a case of nerves before his debut at
Sundance, the top U.S. festival for independent film that has a
history of launching TV movies like "Raisin" with a social
conscience.